NATIONAL NEWS - “The damage done to the South African natural environment and infrastructure (for example, rivers and catchments) by the scourge of black wattles (Acacia mearnsii) is immeasurable.
"As the country is facing up to the inevitable consequences of climate change, and primarily the very clear and present threat of severe and lasting drought in several provinces, the presence and spread of black wattle simply must be stopped without delay,” says Cobus Meiring of the Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI).
“South African landowners and conservation and environmental management entities have to spend billions of rand and resources annually in a never-ending struggle against invasive alien plants such as black wattle, whilst the problem can be solved relatively easily by the introduction of effective biological control agents – in this case, a weevil that originates in the home country of Australia.”
As a mere example, Meiring stresses the continuous threat of black wattle invasions, especially for landowners who must clear their land at their own cost.
In an effort to save Garden Route rivers from complete destruction by black wattle invasions, SCLI and private landowners are collaborating and have cleared thousands of hectares of wattle infestation, but the problem is never-ending and will remain a taxing problem for concerned landowners.
According to Meiring, the South African authorities who control the use of biological control agents on plants have approved the release of a biocontrol agent that quite effectively suppress black wattle from seeding, but have thus far not approved the release of a bio-control agent which can effectively attack the vegetative components of black wattle, and so the trees remain a persistent environmental disaster nationally.
“The reasoning behind protecting black wattles from biological agents that can successfully attack and eradicate black wattle trees is that there are commercial wattle growers who make a living from the biomass they produce, and therefore, effectively expose the entire South African natural infrastructure (rivers, catchments, biodiversity, etc.) to the destruction brought about by black wattles.”
“For the sake of restoring South Africa’s environmental landscape by introducing effective biological control in order to stabilize the country’s ability to deal with climate change in the face of damage done through black wattles, SCLI would like to urge the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to make difficult decisions regarding the future of our precious environment.”
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